The Line Between Love and Hate is Made of Ice
by Almateria-Sheena
Summary: The group is heading out of Frezkiel's cathedral when both Arche and Chester get trapped in and the rest of the group stays out, what will happen? ArChester


A/N: Ok, so this is my very first ToP fic and the first I ever publish here on ff . net so I would appreciate if you let me know what you like and what you don't - especially what you don't - and why , and if the characters are OOC so I can get better at it. Also, english isn't my first language so I'm sorry if you don't understand something or it is bad worded, ok?

Disclaimer: As everybody should know by now, I don't own Tales of Phantasia, or any characters and places you recognize, I only own the plot of this story. They are owned by NAMCO BANDAI and Kosuke Fujishima.

On with the story ^^

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"When are we gonna get outta here?? I'm freezing! brrr..." Said Arche, her voice echoing in all the place. She blew air from her mouth to her hands in hopes of making them warmer, failing miserably.

"I think we are pretty close to the entrance, so cheer up a little, Arche..." Said Mint, trying to sound optimistic, but shivering making it look unconvicing.

"What? How can I cheer up, even Suzu is trembling because of the cold!!" Said Arche, indignated, while crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Wait... I-I-m no-not cold Ar-rche! Nin-ninjas don't get co-cold..." Muttered Suzu, trembling slighty and attemped to put a straight face.

"Like hell you're not!! Please don't lie" Answered the witch, pouting, trying to make her tell the obvious truth.

"I'm not lying... kchoo!" The ninja sneezed, and looked to the other side with a face that read don't-ask-anything-again.

"See!! You catched a cold! maan, we're all screwed here, what if she got some kind of bacteria and it's contagious!?" Said completely ignoring her face, then flew away from her with a (fake) worried face.

"Arche, please don't exagerate things..." Klarth said, sighing then adjusted his hat (i don't undestand how that hat let's him see anything at all...)

"Well, if she got something, I could treat her until we reached the city and looked for a doctor!" Said Mint, worry (for real) audible in her voice.

"Don't worry Suzu! see, we just got to the cathedral!" Said Cress joining to the conversation, adding what he said with a little too much serious tone (think of Veigue)

"But I told you, I don't have anything..." Suzu called out falling behind him, he was now walking a little rushed, like he was the one in danger.

"Hey, why nobody pays attention to what a wise old man has to say?" Klarth said, looking at everyone else, expecting an answer.

"Gosh!! since when are you there, old man? you scared me..." Said Arche, acting shocked lowered a litle her speed as to make more space more space in between him and herself.

"Who are you calling old, anyway!!?" Retorted the ol- errm... Klarth huffing and walking alongside of Cress and Mint.

"But you just said so..." The little ninja said quietly (everybody forgot her cold ¬¬) trying to reason with this...unreasonable team while catching up with them.

You could see more lighting in front of them, they were reaching the exit.

"When?" Klarth questioned totally oblivious to his past words.

"You even have mental gaps, gramps..." The Pink-haired girl said with an knowing expression on her face.

"WHA-!" Klarth just turned around to face her, abruptly.

"Too much about you, geezer I'M. GETTING. FRIGGIN. COLD!!" Arche Whined meanwhile Klarh had a what's-wrong-with-you? face.

"Why can't you shut up...you're annoying" Chester finally spoke after getting anoyed with Arche's whines of being cold. He was walking behind all of them.

"Wha- why would I shut up anyway? You're far more annoying!" She ranted, flying full speed towards him, almost bumping her face with his.

"Why? You have complained about how cold you are since hours ago!!" Grumbled Chester, yelling at her face, Unfazed by the speed she used to reach there.

"But it's damned cold!! What else can I do??" The half-elven witch said, more to herself than to the grumpy blue-haired boy, bringing one finger to her chin, in thought.

He, then, answered absentmindedly "Maybe shut your mouth..."

"You shut your mouth!! idiot!" She yelled, pointing an acusing finger at his face.

"Who are you calling idiot, you moron girl?" Asked the archer.

"Wha-? stupid guy!" She answered, glaring at him.

" Cown girl!" Chester glared back.

"Guys?" Cress asked in a low voice... He was getting worried he would get another headache, like the ones he gets everytime those two argued, and if course that Arche would wind up with some spell; last time, his cape had catched fire... He lowered his face a little, that memory was traumatic, indeed.

"Fox eyed guy!" Arche told him, throwing her arms to her sides, her glare looked more like a pout to him, and her cheeks were tinted red, in frustation.

"Multicolored girl" He called back, then stopped glaring at her, and kept looking ahead, in a "I'm totally ignoring you" fashion.

Actually, he had noticed those details on her face and thought that they were... 'Cu- hey! no way that girl is cute! Stop thinking weird things!!!' and began blushing a little so he looked away so she didn't notice.

"Blue colored asshole!!" She finished, looking ahead as well and crossing her arms in front of her chest like she had earlier, looking upset.

"Hey!" He yelled, jerking his head her direction, to get to glare again, this time he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hey what!?" looking back at him, as well as stopping moving.

"How can you go calling people names like that?" Chester asked, looking incredulous.

"How can you go calling people names like that?" Mimicked Arche, straightening her back and lifting her nose in the air, mocking him.

"What? You're not a person!" Said the archer dissmising the half-elf, looking the other way around, and moving his hand in front of her in that "don't care" motion.

"Hey... Calm down a little..." Tried Mint now outside the cathedral. They have been there almost since Arche and Chester began bickering.

"What did you say?" Asked an angered Arche, getting down of her broom, getting closer to him.

"Want me to repeat it again?" Asked Chester in the same tone she spoke at him.

"You braindead fox!!" She said, while glaring some more.

"Wha- You don't even have a brain!!" Retorted Chester.

"Kids... We are getting out!!" Said Klarth even though he was standing out of the building not even seeing the couple anymore. He actually was checking whether or not they wanted to get out of there, you know it was freezing in there, not that he cared, he only didn't feel his arms and legs... Yeah.

"Hey! I have more brain than you do!!!" She yelled turning her back to him.

"Like hell" He muttered, loud enough to let the girl hear it perfectly.

"Has their bickering left them deaf...?" Asked Suzu tilting her head a little.

"Yes, I learn more faster than you do!" For some reason trying to convice him.

"Nah, it's just their love for each other that doesn't let them hear us..." Aswered the summoner like the wise guy he is.

"No way that's true!!" Answered the "Blue colored guy" completely ignoring Klarth's commentary.

"Yes it is, I have learnt all of my spell books!! Want me to show ya!?" Asked a really pissed off magic user.

"Uh-oh..." Mint and Cress replied to what Arche said, fearing for the well being of the blue-haired guy. Cress even walked two or three steps back, fearing for HIS well being.

"Not this again..." Was Klarth's response. "Hey, who wants to get a gravestone that reads 'here lies Chester Barklight, the most moron guy in all Aselia'?".

"Yeah, like you can!" The annoyed Chester said.

"Poor chester..." Added Suzu.

"Well, just watch it, then!!!" Arche said, while climbing on her broom and preparing a spell.

"Wait..." Said the late-thinker with ponytail.

"DEBRIS FALL!!" Shouted the witch, letting out her spell.

"ARCHE! CHESTER!!" Screamed Cress while Mint gasped audible and Klarth was just watching wide-eyed how the entrance was falling down with their friends in there.

"Kyaaa!!" Arche cried while trying to avoid being crushed down with some debris.

"WHOA!" Chester dogded a big one, falling to the floor.

" Chester!!" Yelled Arche seeing how another piece was coming down on him, and reaching for his arm, getting him on her broom just in time, before it was all on him.

The pieces of rock stopped falling down, but they were trapped in between two walls of debris, making it imposible for them to move to nowhere.

"Idiot..." Muttered Chester, who was still on Arche's broom.

Bad choice of words.

"Idiot? After I totally saved your life 5 seconds ago?" She said, then throwed him on the ground before lowering herself to the floor, her cheeks puffed up a little, in annoyance.

"Oowww... After threatening it, yeah, I should be thankful..." Said looking at her with resentment.

"Well, yes..." She trailed off feeling guilty and lowering her head.

"Yes, I should be thankful that you tried to kill, -Not mentioning end up dead in the process- , and that i'm trapped with you, of all people, in a corridor of a haunted cathedral on a city that is all freezed up, yeah, thanks!!" The archer said with sarcasm, angry.

"You don't have to talk to me like that!!" Her voice quivering a little.

"Oh, I'm sorry I made you go all sentimental!" He continued.

"Shut up!" Arche yelled at him.

And slaped him in the face.

Hard.

She just walked off to the farthest corner she found and sat down, he catched a glimpse of water on her eyes.

Tears.

He looked at her way like if doing so, she would come say she's sorry, that she will stop being an annoying brat and magically be out of there.

Nope. Hell, he couldn't even make her out in the dark.

He huffed a little, then took a look around him, there where rocks everywhere he looked at, and the entrance had crumbles, rocks, and pieces of ice that looked as sharp as the sword Cress carried with him. The other way was another wall of rocks and ice, some places missing, so it wasn't as dark as it could have been, but he almost couldn't see a thing. He continued to scan with his look until he catched a blur of pink. Arche. But remembering the words he spat at her - and the ones she spat at him- he decided to leave her alone for a while, and sat down close to the wall.

Arche, on the other side of the place - or what was left of it- was sitting while hugging her knees in front of her chest, feeling guilty about what she caused, then angry for the reasons she had done it for. She even forgot the cold but that didn't kept her from being.

"Hungry..." She sighed, thinking about all she wanted to eat. If only she had something, whatever to eat, but she was banned from carrying the food sack ever since she ate almost everything herself, the one in charge today was...

'Chester!' Her face iluminated, she just had to make him give her some food, her face fell when she thought about telling him she was sorry - even though it wasn't her fault- and getting him in a good mood.

Chester on the other hand, could care less if the food on all Aselia dissapeared as long as he was a little warmer... How he wished he was the one with all the blankets, but that was ... Arche's thing, and she was crying earlier so, scratch that... Now, who made fire in the campsites?

"ack... Arche..." He winced. Up until now, he just looked at her like some baggage he had to defend from flying monsters so she could cast and a chatterbox who complained all the time, and also, of course, somebody he could get some fun with when he got bored as long as it didn't get as extreme as getting trapped in a corridor made of ice, or like that time Cress's cape got burned...

But now, she was the only one who could stop him from dying freezed.

"Um... Are you feeling ok?"

"Huh!?" He jumped a little, he got too much into his mind, and wasn't expecting anybody to talk to him.

"W-well, you were making many diferent faces and looked just... Plain out of it..." She answered, fumbling a little with her long pink hair, she looked rather nervous.

"Ah... It's nothing, Just thinking..." He answered, and looked at her. She looked pretty calm, considering that everytime she turned to see him, it was just to glare at him. Come to think of it, the first time she spoke to him was to tell him that he looked weak.

"What's up with you? You're sure you're ok?" Asked the witch looking puzzled.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" He told her, snapping out of it.

"Well, you were staring at me real weird... Don't freak me out 'k?" She said to him, then nervously giggled a little.

"Huh? oh... I didn't notice... Sorry..." Mumbled the archer.

'Sorry? You're kidding me, right?' Thought the pink haired girl. It was the first time he ever apologized to her in all the time they have known each other "Ok, can I sit down?" She asked sweetly, smiling and fumbling with the rim of her scarf.

"Uh... Sure." The archer answered after taking a look at her sweet face, and blushing a little, thanking heaven it was so dark that she probably wouldn't notice.

"Thanks!" She chirped, adding some of the energy that caracterizes her, and plopping down beside him.

"So... uh, how do we get out...?" Asked the boy, somewhat awkwardly, not so sure how to talk with her, everytime he speaks to her is only to throw an insult at her.

"Aww... I don't know... I could throw a spell or something, but, more rocks would fall down wouldn't them?" Arche asked looking around.

"Probably..." Was the only thing Chester managed to say, unlike of Arche who forgot her hunger, he was becoming a popsicle right there and then and was begining to shiver a little so he wrapped his arms around him, maybe now that she was in a better mood he could ask her to make some fire or something...?

"You're freezing don't you?" The witch suddendly spoke after minutes of silence, noticing the shivering of the boy beside her, she wasn't looking at him, but at the floor, as if it was the most interesing thing ever created.

"Well, it's getting colder now that everything is getting covered in ice...wait... why it's everything getting frozen?" He began speaking soflty but talked normally when he noticed that, indeed, everything was freezing more than it already was.

"I suppose it's because it's getting late, it must be around 7 pm by now..." Answered the girl "Do you have any orange or pineapple gels on you?" She asked after a while.

"Huh?... No, I used the last one when we left the cavern..." He told her after searching in his pockets, why would she want one, anyways...?

"Oh..." Was the only thing she said.

After about fifteen minutes Chester asked "Hey, can't you make some fire, or make the blankets appear or something, I don't feel my hands anymore..."

"Sorry... I don't have any mana left on me..." Arche said, then she got an idea.

Chester was thinking (Lately he seems to do that a lot, now doesn't he?) When he suddendly he felt something warm hugging him...

"A-Arche! What are y-you doing!?" He felt his face warmer too, he was a tint of red on the cheeks.

"Keeping us both warm, what else?" She told him like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"B-but!..." Little Chester was shocked.

"Shhh..." Little Arche quieted him down, hugging him more tightly and putting her head in his chest, she could hear how fast his heartbeat has gotten, and smiled, just how awkward he got just beacuse she hugged him...?

"H-hey... Any idea how t-to get outta he-here...?" Chester asked trying to normalize his voice, failing miserably.

"You already asked that, I don't know..." She said quietly.

"Oh... Right, sorry..." Yup, that was the second time he apologized, just what's gotten into him, anyway?

Well, it wasn't as cold now, with Arche wrapped around him, and the persisting blush that wouldn't go away... He choose to ignore it because he didn't know how to make it dissapear, and since the witch got her arms around him...

Arche jumped a little when Chester decided to wrap his arms around her thin body (About time, if you ask me...) She thought he would never do it, taking into account that he always acted like he hated her, and that he got all jumpy, awkward, and that he flushed when she embraced him, well, now she was on the same boat...

"Something's the matter?" Asked the blue haired guy, first worried about whether or not he did something wrong, then happy when he noticed that he wasn't the only with the blushing problem.

"No... Nothing at all..." The half-elf answered softly, and looked back at his face, realizing that he was smirking a little, and she got why...

The thing is, that Arche being Arche, wouldn't get as nervous as he got, and if he was going to smirk just because she blushed, he was going to bear whatever she did to him...

She slowly brought her hand from her place behind his upper back to his face, tracing his it with her fingers, ever so lightly...

"A-A-Arche, w-wha-...?" That's all he managed to say, between his stuttering.

She put her hand on his face and brought her face closer and closer to his until there wasn't almost any space between their lips.

"Chester... I...I..." She began softly "I can't believe you fell for this!" She said getting up of the floor.

"WHA-- I didn't fall f-for anything!!!" He said standing as well and blushing madly.

"Yes you did!!" Replied a grinning Arche "Did you think I was going to kiss you? poor little Chester..."

He, then, grabbed her by the arms and pushed her against the wall, grabbing her wrists and putting them on the wall, so she couldn't move he moved closer like she did.

"You're the one who thinks that..." He said to her looking directly into her eyes.

"Yeah..." she said looking at his deep eyes. Chester wasn't expecting such an answer so he didn't know how to react. Arche just smiled "Told ya... you were thinking I was going to do it..."

She didn't wait for his answer as she closed the gap in between their lips, Chester just closed his eyes and began kissing back and...

"I told you they were perfectly fine!!! Well, not so fine considering they resorted to the cannibal way of staying alive, they eating each other!!!!" Klarth shouted.

The archer let go of her wrists and moved away from her the most he could, blushing madly, meanwhile she just was trying to stop a smile from appearing in her face.

"What!? Hey you can't eat your friends!!" Was heard the muffled yell from the innocent Cress, then instants after reach there looking for them, when his look got there he ran and grabbed both Arche's and Chester's arms, looking for bites (-.-,)

"Hey!! You lied, Klarth!" Cress told him.

Mint and Suzu got there, Mint blushing and Suzu told him "Klarth was refering to one of the acts couples do to show their love for each other"

"OOOH... Wait..." From looking at the little kunoichi looked back to the couple, incredulously.

"Ermm, how did you get in here??" Chester asked, trying to ignore Cress's stare.

"I got the idea of getting gnome move the boulders" Klarth proudly announced.

"Well, you got the idea pretty late, don't you? oh, your mind doesn't work like it used to, when you were young, now does it??" Arche told him, finishing with his proud face.

"Hey!! I'm still young!!" Klarth said to her

"Yeah, whatever. Just let's outta here, is freezing and I'm getting hungry!" Arche whined.

"Yes, I already saw just how hungry you are!" was Klarth's response.

"You haven't seen anything, your eyes are getting bad, don't worry, is just your age!" Arche called back, now getting out of the cave.

Klarth just grumbled then got out.

"Just what's going on here?" Asked Cress totally confused.

"When you're older" Said Suzu, Mint giggled at that and Chester just got out of there as fast as he could.

"Hey! I'm older than you!!" Said the swordman, getting out as everybody else.

FIN

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Hope you liked it!! :)

And maybe I'll do a oneshot about the fire on Cress' cape but, I don't know if I should...


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